Yesterday IGN exclusively unveiled High Voltage Software's new Wii title, Gladiator A.D., a very promising 3D fighter that pushes Nintendo's hardware where graphics are concerned. Today, though, we've got a special treat that we think fans of the Left 4 Dead series are simply going to love. It's called The Grinder and it's a blood-drenched first-person shooter designed to accommodate four-player online cooperative action. This title looks absolutely phenomenal, as you're going to see below. Rather than spoil any more details, we've let the developer do the talking. Below, HVS CEO and founder Kerry Ganofsky, chief creative officer Eric Nofsinger and lead art director Matt Corso tell all about The Grinder. We think you're going to want to move this extraordinary Wii-exclusive to the tops of your must-have lists.

Some interesting tidbits, for those too lazy to read the full article:

quote IGN

Eric: Hector, Doc, AJ, and Miko all have different backgrounds that provide them with special skill sets. Hector is a bounty hunter who has tracked targets on both sides of the border. Doc wants to figure out what makes the monsters tick. AJ is an urban explorer who had a very bad experience and is looking for revenge. Miko is an assassin looking for a new challenge. They all bring something special to the table in terms of gameplay.

Kerry: Each character has different strengths and weaknesses, but none are useless. They each also feature their own signature weapons which define who they are.

Hector is boastful, arrogant and greedy. He used to be a professional hunter, but has pissed so many people off over the years that he can't land a job with any of the professional companies any more.

AJ is the sole survivor of a Slasher attack. She knows that it's only a matter of time before the unkillable monster that slaughtered her sorority sisters on a weekend camping trip catches up with her to finish the job.

Doc was a hunter for years but he left the life behind years ago when a mission went very badly. Since then, he's been working as an underground doctor.

Miko is a Japanese assassin. She was getting bored with her job, until the night one of her targets turned out to be a Werewolf. Despite nearly getting killed, she found the battle exhilarating and immediately set out to take down more monsters.

quote IGN

Kerry: We call the technology our Imposter and Instancing system. We are able to take a single enemy and replicate him over and over again. Along with the replication, we can also scale, color, and otherwise modify each instance. This allows us to get an unprecedented number of unique enemies on screen at once at a fraction of the cost to do it otherwise. During our in-house testing, we have been able to see up-to 65 enemies on screen at once. These were initial tests… [Smiles]

quote IGN

Dual wield weapons is one of the more obvious new additions from The Conduit, but we've also got some creatively cool new weapon designs that we think are really going to get people very excited about this game in the coming months. Of course, you can expect to see us taking advantage of the Wii remote's highly awesome interface.

quote IGN

IGN: We noticed that one character is a Japanese assassin. Any chance you'll be wielding any swords? How about MotionPlus support?

Kerry: Miko specializes in killing. She is a master of just about any kind of weapon, so it would be safe to assume that swords would be a specialty.

Matt: This question has got me smiling ear to ear. Of course, we all love the Wii MotionPlus. And what self respecting Wii sword fighting/action game would be complete without it?

Eric: MotionPlus support and swords certainly seem appropriate for an assassin.

quote IGN

IGN: Nice! Will the Grinder feature the same level of customizable controls as The Conduit?

Kerry: No, it will have even more customization options. The Conduit set the bar with the level of customization for console games and we plan to leap over that bar. We are looking at giving players even more control over how to play the game.

Eric: This was an amazing feature we developed for The Conduit and we fully intend to expand on it.

quote IGN

Kerry: The game is being designed from the ground up for online cooperative gameplay experience. Players are able to play the entire single-player game over the network. We do have some additional things planned, but we are not ready to talk about those at this time.

Matt: So far the co-op mode has been working out great, with zero lag while displaying tons of enemies on the screen at once. We've wanted this feature in our games for a long time and we're really proud to be bringing this feature to The Grinder. Oh and there's also split screen coop mode currently running in the demo, which is also pretty awesome for those who may not have access to play together using a Wi-Fi connection.

quote IGN

IGN: When are you hoping to release the game?

Eric: The goal is holiday 2010 and our projects tend to ship on time more often than not!

Matt: Just as soon as we find a publisher for the game we'll be able to give an official release date. This all feels pretty similar to where we were at a year ago with The Conduit. Only we've actually got a consumer display booth as a base of operations at this year's E3, which is cool on so many levels! The best part for me personally being that Eric Nofsinger won't make me carry around a Wii dev kit and TV on my back like a pack mule, in order to give demos of the game during the show. Or at least I don't think that he will.

I'll drool too once Nintendo comes in and fix Wii Speak. It'll be impossible to hear your teammates above their TV sets. And having them turn their TVs down will only mean they can't hear you. Nintendo is harming what could be a great killer app.

the characters sound so grossly cookie-cutter that it isn't even funny.

Yeah, I had the same thought. Sounds like they are going for a cheesy, grindhouse style game though, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

I just hope they focus on the "hunter" aspect of the game. Most games set you up as a person trying to survive in an onslaught of monsters, or at least pretend to. It would be a nice change of pace to be the hunter in one of these games for once, instead of the hunted.

I understood it as that humanity had lived with the monsters forever, and just occasional outbreaks of violence were taken care of by our heroes. Perhaps I read it wrong though, I'll have to go back over it now that it isn't 11pm at night.

This is amazing.......if I had friends to play with. It's the same problem with L4D, great gma,e but lack of real-world friends to play with ruins it.

Still, looks like a great add to the Wii library. Though I wish that people will stop considering HVs games the first "hardcore" Wii games. If the Wii audience begs for hardcore games, we don't need things like this, we want stuff like Little Kings Story!

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Yes, life was better once. But getting all worked up over the paradise he'd lost was blinding him to the joys of mediocrity. Today's joy was snot-colored soup and a lecture, but at least he wouldn't starve. Home is where you hang your hat.

This console generation has seen a massive divide, with most of the "realistic" games going to 360/PS3, and most of the "stylized" games going to Wii. I understand the difference in hardware power, but come on! Developers made excellent games with this amount of horsepower last gen, and HVS is making it fairly obvious that the "last gen." consoles had a ton of untapped potential not apparent until now.

Now, I prefer the stylized to the realistic any day, but sheer variety is what makes gaming great, and some experiences of both should be on every console.

To your point of real world friends, I'm kind of the same way. I don't have a ton of people I know that are big Wii gamers, or gamers period, and certainly none that I really want to play over the internet with. I am lucky enough to have someone to play with for Split screen, but the online aspect doesn't really play a big part for me, especially since I don't have and don't plan on getting Wii Speak anytime soon. Still, I'm looking forward to an extra bit of variety in my collection, so I'm still psyched for this game.

This console generation has seen a massive divide, with most of the "realistic" games going to 360/PS3, and most of the "stylized" games going to Wii. I understand the difference in hardware power, but come on! Developers made excellent games with this amount of horsepower last gen, and HVS is making it fairly obvious that the "last gen." consoles had a ton of untapped potential not apparent until now.

Yeah, I suppose. I guess you're right.

Dang it, your good at this, are you a lawyer or somethin'

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Yes, life was better once. But getting all worked up over the paradise he'd lost was blinding him to the joys of mediocrity. Today's joy was snot-colored soup and a lecture, but at least he wouldn't starve. Home is where you hang your hat.